Issue: 09/25/02

Distinguished professor Tadao Murata

Expert on a mysterious mathematical tool

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09/25/02

Paul Francuch

“I can’t think of a place I haven’t visited yet that I’ve wanted to see,” he said.

Often Murata travels as the invited guest of others, lecturing on his research interest – a graphical and mathematical modeling tool called “Petri nets,” named for German mathematician Carl Adam Petri.

Murata is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on Petri nets, a tool used for studying computer systems that work concurrently.

Murata began his career as an electrical engineer with an interest in network theory. In his native Japan, he translated into Japanese an influential electrical engineering text titled Network Analysis written by the late Mac E. Van Valkenburg, former engineering dean at UIUC.

Van Valkenburg invited Murata to Urbana to do graduate work. After earning his Ph.D., Murata moved north in 1966 to what was then the Chicago Circle campus and joined the College of Engineering faculty.

“The campus was only one year old when I arrived,” said Murata. “I’ve grown up with it.”

Murata discovered Petri’s work in the mid-1970s and has been working ever since on its theory and application to areas such as software engineering, modeling and analysis of concurrent or distributed systems, and to logic and rule-based artificial intelligence systems.

“The Petri net has so-called ‘three-in-one’ characteristics,” said Murata.

“First, it’s graphical and user-friendly. Second, it’s based on a vigorous mathematical foundation. Finally, it possesses simulation capabilities that can be used to find out how the system behaves.

“It’s like having a vehicle that travels on land, on sea and in the air,” he said. “It seems a bit awkward, but it’s very convenient having all these capabilities.”

While many understand the general concept of Petri nets, few have sophisticated knowledge.

“Not as many as we’d wish,” said Murata. “But it takes time to get accepted.”

Murata introduces the concept of Petri nets in teaching undergraduate courses on computer language and architecture.

“The students like it when they see in graphical form how it works,” said Murata. “But when it comes to explaining the mathematical foundation, many students start to drift.”

Murata advises his graduate students to study new theory and applications for Petri nets as subjects for masters and doctoral theses. He also keeps looking for new applications and, by doing so, keeps up with new trends and developments in computer science.

“The Petri net is my language. I try to translate other theories and applications into ‘my language.’ That’s how I get into new research areas and discover new ideas,” he said.

Murata’s expertise has won him invitations to serve as a visiting professor at many universities, including the University of California-Berkeley, Tokai University in Tokyo (his alma mater) and Osaka University in Toyonaka.

He’s lectured on Petri nets world-wide at conferences and ranks among the most prolific writers on the subject. An award-winning paper he wrote in 1989 remains one of the most highly-referenced papers on the subject. He’s associate editor for the Journal of Circuits, Systems and Computers and is former editor of the journal IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering) Transactions on Software Engineering.

Two years ago, Murata was the first recipient of the Carl Adam Petri Distinguished Technical Achievement Award from the Society for Design and Process Science.

He was named a University of Illinois University Scholar in 1990.

When not busy studying Petri nets, Murata can often be found on the links.

“I try to play nine holes of golf every day for exercise,” he said. “That’s my way of staying young and healthy.”

Above: Tadao Murata says, “The campus was one year old when I arrived.”

Photo: Troy Heinzeroth